A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality (Web Novel)

Chapter 523: Extracting Souls and Seizing Cores

With the formations at the entrance of his cave residence completed, Han Li had completed his preparations for an extended absence. As for the Soul Nurturing Tree, it had been continuously fed the green liquid over the span of two years and was now fully grown. The tree was just like the Gold Lightning Bamboo had been; it ceased growing after it reached the age of ten thousand years. It was completely unaffected by the green liquid after reaching that point of maturation.

Naturally, Han Li wasn’t going to just leave the tree behind and let it gather dust. He carved the foot-long trunk into a dozen thumb-sized beads and strung them together on a golden thread before wearing them around his neck. This type of divine wood didn’t need to be meticulously refined; one simply needed to wear it close to their body to receive its wondrous soul nurturing and recovery effects.

After dealing with everything in his cave residence, Han Li left his cave residence and quietly flew out from the mist surrounding the small island.

With the Rainbow Skirt Grass in hand, Han Li had no plans of heading into the depths. Not only did demon beasts of grade eight and higher wander there, but cultivators gathered too. Such a place would be completely unsuitable for him to place down a spell formation and lure demon beasts into. So long as he had the Rainbow Skirt Grass, any part of the nearby seas were all the same to him. As such, it would be better for him to find a secluded coral island instead.

With that thought in mind, Han Li got his bearings before shooting off into the west, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

A month later, Han Li stopped above a fire-red coral reef.

On his way here, he had already spotted many coral islands, but for fear of being too close to his cave residence and attracting trouble, he ignored them and continued flying. Although this reef was so small that it couldn’t be called an island, it was more than enough for the purposes of planting Rainbow Skirt Grass.

Han Li decided that this would be the location of his first hunting grounds.

Currently, he had already placed down four spell formations near the coral reef, tightly encasing the nearby surroundings. All that was left was to carefully place the Rainbow Skirt Grass at the center of the magic formations. Since he wanted to attract grade six demon beasts, he needed to mature the Rainbow Skirt Grass to four hundred years old.

It would require a month’s worth of time to acquire enough green liquid to mature the Rainbow Skirt Grass to that age. However, he wasn’t going to be able to spend that time idly.

The first three blooms of the Rainbow Skirt Grass attracted a few low grade demon beasts from him to practice on. Although pills made from the cores of grade five demon beasts would have little effect on Han Li’s cultivation , he could exchange them for quite a few spirit stones. He wasn’t about to just let them go.

As expected, after the fourth time the Rainbow Skirt Grass bloomed, four grade five demon beasts were pulled in. They were quickly and easily executed with a few of the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

……

Gazing at the Rainbow Skirt Grass with three uncurled leaves, Han Li let a long breath before carefully poured the green liquid on top of the plant. He then put the bottle away and sat down at its side before meditating.

When the third day had passed, the Rainbow Skirt Grass uncurled its fourth leaf, releasing its demon-luring scent. Han Li had spent the past two days honing his strength in silent meditation.

Although killing grade five and six demon beasts should pose no problem to him, at the end of the day he was still a lone person deep at sea. It was better to be safe than sorry.

The effects of the Rainbow Skirt Grass wasn’t always consistent. In the past, he had attracted a grade seven black dragon, nearly bringing about his death. He was forced to sacrifice a rather valuable spell formation in order to make his escape.

Han Li truly didn’t wish to lose his life over a brief moment of carelessness.

After most of the day had passed, Han Li’s expression suddenly twitched. He opened his eyes and coldly stared into the distance.

A short moment later, a storm of dense black clouds had in the horizon, accompanied by a thirty-meter-wide whirlpool that suddenly appeared beneath it. A faint rumbling could be heard coming from within it.

With a calm expression, Han Li shot into the air as a streak of azure light and gazed at the scene before him.

With the muffled rumblings coming from the whirlpool, a demon beast clad in black Qi leapt out from within. The demon beast wasn’t large, and was only about ten meters long. As it gazed towards the Rainbow Skirt Grass, it released a violent screech.

Han Li let out a sigh of relief at the sight.

He was unable to see the true form of the demon beast due to the black Qi blocking it from his sight. But from intensity of black Qi, it appeared to be a grade six demon beast.

This was the most optimal result as it shouldn’t prove to be dangerous in even the slightest.

As a result, Han Li remained motionless in the air as he stared down at the demon beast.

After only a short moment, the demon beast had been driven into a frenzy by the scent of the Rainbow Skirt Grass. With a loud snarl, it fiercely pounced towards the coral reef, stirring up a thirty-meter-tall wave following in its wake.

After having experienced the huge tortoise’s waves as it underwent tribulation, this mere level of display wasn’t enough to impress Han Li.

After seeing the demon beast draw close to the coral reef, a sneer appeared on Han Li’s face. With a wave of his arm, a dark-green formation plate appeared in his palm. After emitting a flash of azure light from his hand, Han Li struck the formation plate without hesitation, causing it to suddenly glow with a blinding yellow light.

In the next moment, over ten beams of yellow light shot out from the sea, forming a barrier of yellow fire that surrounded the demon beast.

The demon beast was clearly startled. It immediately brandished two claws from within the black cloud of qi and fiercely struck against the yellow light barrier.

With a huge bang, the yellow light barrier wavered on the verge of collapse. It appeared as if it wouldn’t be able to withstand much more.

However, it had already bought Han Li more than enough time. The Five Element Bands he had prepared in his hand released a clear ring before disappearing in a blur.

As a series of cries came from within the black cloud, rainbow light suddenly appeared and then disappeared into the black Qi. A second later, a frightened roar was heard as the black Qi scattered, revealing the demon beast within.

The demon beast turned out to be a twelve-meter-long grey prawn with three green eyes on each side of its head. It appeared panic-stricken.

It was currently restricted by the five copper bands and was rendered completely incapable of escaping.

At that moment, two streaks of bright azure light flew down and revolved around the huge prawn in coordination, chopping it into pieces. Green blood splattered onto the seas below.

The Five Element Bands trembled several times before disappearing in a glow of light and reappearing in Han Li’s grasp a moment later.

Han Li wore a slight smile on his face and shook the formation plate in his hand. The yellow radiance immediately faded away as the yellow barrier beneath him followed suit.

Then with a wave of his hand, the Five Element Bands had been replaced with a pitch-black alms bowl in a flicker of light.

With both hands clasped on the bowl, Han Li floated down next to the pawn’s corpse.

A cold glint flickered from Han Li’s eyes as he stared at the huge prawn’s head. Without further deliberation, Han Li extended his finger and started to mutter an incantation. The tip of his finger began to shine and gradually grew brighter.

Han Li coldly snorted. Several thin white strings shot out from Han Li’s finger before piercing into the huge prawn’s skull. Then with a shake of his finger, the white strings pulled out a fist-sized orb of green light from within the prawn’s head and brought it towards the Soul Congregation Bowl.

The green light knew that this wouldn’t end well, and began to struggle with all its might against the white threads. However, it was unable to break free as it slowly drew closer to the bowl.

When it was about a foot away from the Soul Congregation Bowl, the green orb of light was wrapped in black light and drawn into the bowl.

Han Li smiled at the scene. He then approached the prawn’s corpse and rummaged through the scattered remains before he found a light blue sphere.

Not only were grade six demon beast cores larger than those from grade five, but they were also more translucent and shined with a faint glow. It made for a beautiful sight.

After looking at it for a moment more, Han Li placed the core into his storage pouch and took another look at the huge prawn’s corpse as if something had just come to mind. He suddenly raised his hand and cut it with two more streaks of light.

He sliced off its claws and placed them into his storage pouch without any further thought. Afterwards, he shot a small fireball at the corpse, turning all of the remaining pieces into ashes.

Han Li calmly flew back to the Rainbow Skirt Grass and went back to sitting down cross-legged.

He was confident that the nearby seas didn’t only have one grade six demon beast. Now, he just had to calmly wait until the next one arrived.